Parking plan has to change

All we see on the horizon is a long, ugly campaign over the parking referendum and fights over budget cuts.

Opponents and supporters of the plan to privatize Cincinnati's parking are digging in their heels. Supporters use inflammatory rhetoric, likening the signing of a petition to the signing of a pink slip for public-safety employees. Opponents, who delivered nearly 20,000 signatures to City Hall on Thursday to put the issue on November's ballot, offer as-yet unrealized revenue as their solution to the budget shortfall.

All we see on the horizon is a long, ugly campaign over the referendum and fights over budget cuts.

At the risk of sounding too kumbaya-ish, we'd like to see city leaders on both sides of this issue take a different approach. Specifically, we'd like to see supporters of the parking plan answer the opponents' concerns one by one, then come up with a new deal for City Council to consider. Answers to the following objections would help:

? For those who worry the city isn't getting all it could in return for the parking deal, let's appoint a blue-ribbon commission of outsiders - retired CEOs, bond experts, officials who have negotiated privatization deals elsewhere - to comb through the deal for us. Though the city had a consultant, the assessment of respected business people with no ties to city government could go a long way toward reassuring some opponents. We should get their take by May 1, to allow for debate before the city's June 1 budget deadline.

? Are the deal's partners, or any other firms that bid on the privatization plan, willing to come back to the table and renegotiate based on feedback to the plan so far? Indianapolis' parking plan is often held up as a model, but there was plenty of opposition to it when it was first introduced. City-county officials and their partners went back over the deal and made changes in response to the criticism. The changes included a smaller upfront payment to the city but a higher share of annual revenue that increased the city's overall projected revenue. It also gave the city a way to end the deal early.

? Are there budget cuts that supporters of the parking plan are willing to consider? The use of parking revenue for development projects convinced many people that this wasn't just a short-term fix. Some good-faith budget cuts may allay some of the fears and free up more funds for the kinds of projects the city needs to grow. It would also put Cincinnati in a less-desperate bargaining position.

? Mayoral candidate John Cranley and other opponents have criticized the deal for enriching a "New York hedge fund." If any local funds want to bid on the deal, let's hear from them, but this strikes us as a silly and provincial argument.

? The knee-jerk reaction to the prospect of meter increases is unrealistic - meter rates need to rise from time to time, and the increases outlined in the deal seem reasonable. Can we, though, eliminate the loophole that would allow increases of greater than 3 percent a year?

For those who oppose the parking plan and the prospect of police and firefighter layoffs, let us know exactly how you'd close the looming $25 million budget gap. Councilman Christopher Smitherman proposed a roster of cuts Thursday that's a good place to start. But we are leery of any plan that depends on casino revenue to close a significant chunk of the gap. There's no historical data to back up its projected revenue, and $4 million of that's already spoken for.

More importantly, let's start looking past the immediate budget crisis and figure out a way to structurally balance the budget. City Manager Milton Dohoney has warned for years of layoffs if we don't address this issue. Every year there's been a last-minute fix. We may be out of options now. So if you oppose the parking plan, let us know exactly what you'd do instead.■

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Parking plan has to change

Opponents and supporters of the plan to privatize Cincinnati's parking are digging in their heels. Supporters use inflammatory rhetoric, likening the signing of a petition to the signing of a pink